


Heart Transplant

by oroborus



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-13 01:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21486415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oroborus/pseuds/oroborus
Summary: Whether it was dumb luck, a twist of fate, or something even more sinister, Someone Else is transferred to Shujin Academy after being convicted of a crime he didn't commit. A man with foreknowledge about the events to come takes on the name of Joker, leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. But can he lead his teammates to victory in a world that's slightly off from what he remembers?
Kudos: 6





	Heart Transplant

** ???**

At first, I wasn't quite sure what was happening. After all, no one anticipates their death until it's right upon them: this was the situation I had found myself in. I could hardly remember what had brought me to this point, but considering the majority of my blood was outside of my body at the time, I believed this was understandable. My vision clouded over, my shallow breathing stilled, and my limbs felt numb and heavy as my lifeblood soaked the carpeted floor beneath me. As what could have been a long, happy life faded away into blackness, I thought about what would happen to me? Everyone hopes for some answer in death, something to show that their existence had meaning. Whether they find that answer, or not? Isn't something the living will ever know.

I certainly didn't expect to _wake up_ afterward.

**April 9th, 1 PM**

The first sign I had that something was wrong was when my heart started beating. That is more than likely the one thing everyone knows about being dead: your heart stops. And yet, here I was! Seemingly in the peak of health despite having bled out only moments ago. What's more, my clothes were noticeably un-bloodstained. I leaned back in my seat and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, letting out a sudden yawn. It seemed that despite my return to the mortal coil, I was still dead-tired. Heh. Wait, my seat? It occurred to me just then where I was. I was riding a train.

Why was I riding a train? It seemed to be a perfectly normal train; there were no jarring abnormalities that I could detect. Except for the fact that I had lived in rural West Virginia, the last time I had seen a train like this was when I had visited New York. And for that matter, what was up with my clothes? I seemed to be wearing a school uniform of some kind. It was a strangely familiar-looking uniform as well. Hyper-aware of the oddity of my situation, my ears picked up on something off about the surrounding conversation. These people...they were speaking Japanese, yet I could understand them near-fluently? How could that- no. No, that doesn't happen to people in real life. But considering my situation, had I been reincarnated into another world? Had I suddenly become the protagonist of some shitty Light Novel?! My sudden onset panic attack was interrupted, however, by a conversation between two nearby girls.

"What? Are you for real? A Mental Shutdown?"

"It's the truth!"

"To a person though? That's gotta be a joke. You really love all that occult stuff, don't you?"

Why did that conversation sound so familiar, It was almost as if I had heard. It. Before. _Oh god_, don't tell me that meant what I thought it meant. As the train stopped, I quickly made my way out of the station. I found myself faced with an intersection, the world-famous Shibuya Scramble. I frantically dug through my pockets for my phone, unlocked, and started searching desperately through my screens. There it was, nestled between Discord and Google Docs was an ominous red and black app. Each pulse of that wretched eye with its star-shaped pupil seemed to send waves of malevolent force roiling across the glass of my touchscreen. Transfixed, I couldn't help myself from pressing the symbol with my thumb, as if I were simply an observer in my own body. Just as it had happened to a certain protagonist, I found the same thing happening to me.

The flow of time around me seemed to slow to a crawl, the crowd of bystanders petrified as though they were merely statues. My disbelieving eyes flicked across my surroundings, somehow refusing to take it all in before they finally settled on a column of blue flames a few dozen feet away. The eye-searingly bright wall of fire resolved itself into the shape of a tall, winged silhouette, and for a brief moment, I saw my face reflected in the flame. But just like that, it was over, the people around me resumed going about their day completely unaware of what had just happened. Regardless, that only confirmed my fears, I was in Persona 5.

Fuck.

**April 9th, 3 PM**

After some trial and error, I had found my way to Yongen-Jaya Station. Based on my situation, the date listed on my phone, and where I was, I seemed to have replaced Ren Amamiya as the protagonist of Persona 5. Whatever dumb god of self-inserts was responsible for this was no doubt laughing at me right now, and considering my luck it was probably Nyarlathotep. The point being, I was alone in this absurd universe, in a foreign city, with nothing but a small backpack's worth of possessions to my name. My best bet for a place to stay was at Leblanc.

As I wandered through the cramped streets of Yongen-Jaya, I thought about what I would do in this situation. I was pretty knowledgeable about Persona 5, it was the game that had gotten me into the rest of the series, after all. I was also familiar with the concept of real people being trapped inside fictional universes, (it was practically a genre in itself), so I was prepared for that. What was bugging me about this situation, was why it was me in particular. I suppose there wasn't typically an important reason why one random person gets shoved into a video game, it generally just happens. Content that my oncoming metaphysical crisis was successfully diverted, I walked to the familiar door of Cafe Leblanc.

Stepping inside, I reacquainted myself with Leblanc's homely interior. There was a definite charm to the place, the atmosphere enriched with the scent of roast coffee and spices. An elderly couple sat at one of the booths, polishing off their drinks. Seated atop one of the bar stools was an older man with a newspaper on his lap, he seemed to be working on a crossword. In the far corner of the room, a television was playing a report from a local tabloid.

"A public transit bus was driven down the opposing lane with its customers still in it!" the man on the screen said indignantly, "The citizens can't live in peace if this keeps up."

The man in the booth cringed in response, "Oh... how frightening."

"What could be going on? Didn't something similar happen just the other day?" His wife responded.

The man at the bar didn't react, seemingly engrossed in his current occupation, muttering under his breath.

I spoke up at that moment, _"Excuse me, are you Sojiro Sakura?"_

As the words slipped out of my mouth I realized I had said that in English, this was going to take some getting used to.

Sojiro looked up at me, surprised, "Right, they did say that was today."

He chuckled, "Heh... if I hadn't known beforehand, I would've thought you were an American tourist or something."

He set his newspaper on top of the bar and stood up. Sojiro Sakura looked exactly like I remembered, a tall, thin man with a well-kept beard and a thinning hairline. The elderly couple paid for their coffee and left the cafe. Sojiro sighed.

"Four hours for a single cup of joe," he said to himself, shaking his head.

He looked at me, "So, you're Shuichi?"

I blanched at the unfamiliar name, but some part of myself seemed to acknowledge it as correct.

"That's right," I said, in Japanese this time.

He smirked, the expression looking right at home on his face, "Funny name for a kid whose blood is only a quarter Japanese. Anyway, I'm Sojiro Sakura. You'll be in my custody for the next year."

The man's eyes raked me up and down from behind his glasses, "I was wondering what kind of unruly kid would show up, but you're the one, huh?"

"One of your parent's friends is a customer of mine, and she- well, not like that matters," he turned toward the stairs, "Follow me."

I followed him up to the cafe's attic, and my eyes started to water from the dust. The room was practically overflowing with clutter, garbage bags and cardboard boxes were stacked up as far as the eye could see. In the back corner by the window, an old mattress and a comforter were set atop some milk-crates.

"This is your room," Sojiro said, his hand brushing under his nose.

I blinked reflexively and said, "It's certainly... big."

Sojiro turned back to me, "It'll be on you to keep it clean. I'll be leaving after I lock up each night, so don't try anything stupid," he pointed at me, "I'll throw you out on your ass if you cause trouble."

He let out a breath and slid his hand back through his hair, "...I got the gist of your situation. You protected some woman from a man forcing himself on her, he got injured, and then sued you, is that right?"

I nodded in response.

"And since you've got a criminal record now, you were expelled from your previous high school. The courts ordered you to transfer and move out here... which your parents approved. Meaning, they kicked you out for being a pain in the ass."

Jeeze, I'd forgotten how abrasive the guy could be before their confidant had gotten underway.

"Just behave yourself for the year, and if nothing happens, your probation will be lifted. We'll be going to Shujin tomorrow to get things squared away with your teachers."

"That's the name of my new school, right? Shujin."

Sojiro scoffed, "I should hope you know that; you're wearing the uniform they sent you," he started walking down the stairs again.

Pointing a thumb back over his shoulder, "Your 'luggage' arrived a little while ago. Make yourself busy and start unpacking," he said, indicating a pair of boxes in the middle of the floor.

And, like that, I was alone.

**April 9th, 7 PM**

It had taken some doing. I'd never been the best at cleaning my room, but at least now this place was liveable. I had exchanged my school uniform for jeans and a hoodie since I only had one spare uniform and didn't want it to get too dirty. At the moment I was reclined on my bed and playing phone games, but I sat up when I heard footsteps. Sojiro came upstairs and blinked at the state of the room.

"What the heck? I heard all that noise earlier, but I didn't think you were actually cleaning," his gaze wandered around the room, hand on his chin, "Doesn't look half bad. Though I suppose it's natural you'd want to keep your room tidy."

His hand rested on his hip, "Anyway, I'm locking up for the night, so why don't you head to bed. Not like you've got anything better to do."

I looked at my face in my phone's reflection as Sojiro walked away, familiar, but with a different name attached. I had straight, brown hair which I kept tucked behind my right ear and covering my left. Blue-gray eyes blinked below dark brows, and a light stubble covered my cheeks. Memories were coming back to me, not from the person I was before, but the person I was now. My name was Shuichi Morris, the seventeen-year-old son of an American man and a half-Japanese woman. My parents in this life had met at college in the United States and fallen for each other. And my father, who had been looking for a job in Japan, followed her home. In terms of personality, Shuichi and I were nearly Identical, we had the same likes the same dislikes, all of it.

I remembered _that_ night, too. Shuichi had been walking home from cram school, (he'd taken better to the Japanese education system than I had to the American equivalent), and it was late at night. I could distinctly remember the flicker of each street light, the low hum of insects in the air, the vibrations in my body from each step I took. From there, things had gone much the same for him as they had for the protagonist, he had come across a heavily drunk man harassing his date, intervened, and the man ended up hitting his head off the curb. The police had shown up, and the woman had been coerced into saying that Shuichi had assaulted the man. From there, I went through a show trial where Shido didn't even publically show up and was never directly named. The judge had pronounced me guilty of the assault charges and then that was that.

There was so much about this that I was apprehensive about. I had a year of many joys and sorrows ahead of me, and there was a good chance that I'd be spending several months in prison at the end of it.

My head settled onto my pillow, "Well... at least I won't be alone for it."

I drifted off and dreamed of Blue Velvet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and so begins this journey. A challenge to myself to finally complete a piece of fanfiction that I've written. I hope you all are prepared because you're in for the long haul now, and I would greatly appreciate any reviews or constructive criticism you have to offer.
> 
> : )


End file.
